I get asked a lot about traditionally stored and wetter pu’erh. I like to drink these teas and it’s unfortunately a type that lacks a lot of the exposure in comparison with young pu’erh or ripe pu’erh. Most pu’erh focused vendors don’t offer this type of tea and the ones that do, it typically makes up a small part of their catalog.. Pu’erh offers a broad array of unfamiliar tastes to the western palate that can be different and a unique experience for new drinkers (see ripe pu’erh or young raw), but sitting atop that list is traditionally stored pu’erh. That lack of exposure isn’t the case in areas around southern China, where pu’erh has been consumed for much longer than anywhere else and traditional storage has historically been the default.

The vast majority of tea at a certain age underwent traditional storage (including many famous teas), and if you’ve sampled sheng of a certain age you’ve probably tried it.

Some lightly traditionally stored loose leaf ripe.

Pu’erh as a Fermented Beverage??

In the western tea world, there’s a lot of raw pu’erh consumed young or close to its conception. You can debate whether this is bona fida pu’erh or not, but they really haven’t undergone any sort of significant fermentation process. With traditionally stored pu’erh there’s no debate. The storage is designed to ferment and transform the tea from its unaged or raw form into something smoother, richer, and more drinkable. Like a stinky, moldy cheese traditionally stored pu’erh can be kindly speaking an acquired taste that some find very off-putting. Other people will have a more natural preference towards it.

Let’s compare it to ripe pu’erh, which of course has been fermented. Marshaln has detailed out many of the specifics in traditionally stored tea. Well-stored traditional pu’erh will usually undergo an airing out period where it is left to rest for at least a couple years before being sold and consumed. In-comparison ripe pu’erh is like a far faster version of the process.. It undergoes a much quicker (and more intense) fermentation process over the course of 45 days, where it is essentially composted before being left to rest and air out before being pressed and sold. From a certain lense, these processes really aren’t terribly different by design. There can certainly be poorly stored pu’erh tea just like there can be poorly fermented cooked tea, but people should think twice about being overly dismissive of traditional storage as undrinkably moldy.

In the marketplace, older teas that have been stored more dryly will generally fetch a higher price point than the traditionally stored versions, which permanently changes the character of the tea and depresses the resale value.

With traditional storage there’s also a significant range, ranging from light to relatively heavy.

The availability of traditionally stored tea out west is severely lacking compared to a place with a long history of pu’erh consumption like Hong Kong.

Some tinned traditionally stored Pu’erh.

Practical Tips. Judging, Airing it Out.

Marshaln published a post a year ago I highly recommend on dealing with traditionally stored teas. Here’s a few more practical tips/reinforcements from his post.

I remember when I was first being exposed to traditionally stored teas one of the trickiest things to differentiate was the character of the tea and the storage. There’s not an easy answer to this, but the storage tends to be most prevalent in the initial infusions. Don’t give up on the tea too soon. If you dislike it, rinse it a few times and keep dumping infusions until you encounter a brew you find more palatable.

Another practical way to improve the experience is to air the tea out for a while. I usually break up a chunk of my cake into near maocha form and then put it in some cheap Daiso stoneware. Breaking it up gives it more surface area and airs out more quickly than if you left it in the cake form. I’ll typically give that piece at least a week or two in the tin before I brew it. There’s plenty of different and non-nefarious reasons why a tea might improve from airing out. Maybe you tried the tea from an aired out sample cake and the tea you bought got shipped directly from the vendor’s storage. Don’t freak out and give the tea some time to breathe a bit.

There’s a couple ways to judge the intensity of the storage. These things aren’t binary and there can be a large range of conditions for traditionally stored tea.

If the leaves are mulched together and are dark. Those are signs that it’s seen some pretty heavy humidity at some point.

Mold. If there is visible mold on top of the cake, this can be brushed off with a toothbrush. Break into the cake and if there’s mold on the inside that’s also an indicator of the storage. Usually mold will develop on the outside of the cake first, and then the inside. Don’t freak out – this is a fermented tea and does not mean you will die from drinking it. I’ve consumed, survived, and enjoyed teas with visible mold (after airing out) that had visible white stuff upon arrival. Mold is relative and if a tea is too moldy or has yellow spores, don’t drink it.

By smell. These teas will usually have a pretty distinctive smell. Another reason to air it out.

The wet leaves are very good at helping to tell the story of the storage. After you’ve finished your session, dump the leaves out and take a look. These can be telltale signs for how the tea was stored. Darker will usually mean that the tea has been stored in more humid conditions at a certain point. It might be aired out and taste clean, but it has undergone some stronger storage. Try the same with some of your ripe and note the similarities and differences between the wet leaves.

Your throat. If a tea gives a sort of rough, scratchy astringency it can be a sign that you should consider not drinking the tea.

A bad body reaction. I’ve had one experience with an older tea giving me a mild form of anaphylactic reaction. While, I’m not quite sure what the exact cause is, it’s obviously something you don’t want a repeat experience of.

Overly strong in any of those characteristics above. These things all work in a range, if a tea is irredeemably nasty, musty, and loaded with spores on the inside and outside than the tea may not be worth your while.

So when is a traditionally stored pu’erh “finished”? Or ready to drink?

This is an interesting question, and I’d be curious to hear how more experienced people answer it. I don’t see the idea of a tea being finished tossed around very much in western circles. A lot of young tea gets circulated out west and it’s usually older = better. That being said, if you go into a shop with some old teas on display, they’ll often be shrink wrapped. This is to preserve the current condition of the cake.

It also depends on the actual storage of the tea. There are some heavier stored teas, where the tea need time to air out and clean up. There are more lightly stored traditionally stored teas, where the tea might benefit from additional time to age and mellow. For me personally, there are some traditionally stored teas I own that are as young as 12 or 13 years old that I’m perfectly OK with drinking on a regular basis. Is it at its peak or finished? I’m not really sure, but I am perfectly OK drinking and enjoying it..

This also brings up another question, will a tea (without obvious processing errors) peak and then start to decline at some point? I don’t really have a great answer either but I do suspect the answer is yes that most teas will decline at a certain point, although it may be a point that doesn’t come as easily with dry-storage and is likely to be very tea-dependent.

A couple common related questions…

If you buy new or naturally stored semi-aged sheng. Will it turn out the same as older traditionally stored sheng? No. Why? Because the storage is not the same. There aren’t many dry-stored teas of a certain age available, these teas aren’t ever going to evolve to be the same.

How long before my raw tastes like my ripe? Never.

Do ripe and traditionally stored raw pu’erh taste the same? No. While there are some differences outlined above, the processing and storage results in different products.

Is all tea stored in HK (or Taiwan) traditionally stored? No. Because HK is associated with wetter storage this is sometimes assumed. It’s not an accurate assumption at all.

Why isn’t my cake 357g? The tea changing in weight over time is a pretty normal thing. The weight change all depends on a number of factors like the age, storage, where it was in the tong, etc. Oftentimes when aged teas are sold in east Asia, they’ll weigh the tea to show the current weight of the tea.

yes, reporting from nowhere land, i can say that unfermented unroasted green coffee from these plantations are no good, while unfermented unroasted green coffee from thousand-year-old trees is the best.

my brewing parameters? yes, i’m using a 3 person french press, fill it 80% full with coarse grind of unfermented unroasted green coffee beans from thousand-year-old trees and i can make 15 delicious espresso cups of espresso coffee by flash brewing. it’s the best.

well, i think green coffee is traditional in some parts of Arabia. I’ve seen a recipe in a cookbook once. (Forget which country and its name in Arabic.) It called for things like rosewater, cardamon, saffron, other spices etc.

Now seriously, soy sauce is also fermented and one should never use soy sauce that is moldy in any way or needs airing out. There are also fake or poisonous soy sauce in the Chinese market (in addition to fake toxic milk). It is that bad.

When you say that “…heavy humidity…mold…smell… aren’t really unusual and aren’t necessarily red flags,” it is very misleading. Maybe that’s what tea vendors say to dump bad tea on people. But why would you risk to get any “anaphylactic reaction” ?

Um. As I clearly state there is a range to these things. I’ve had equally unpleasant reactions ro pleny of oolongs and other non-trad stored tea and that doesn’t stop me from consuming them. One bad reaction out of several hundred of sessions isn’t enough to turn me off from a type of tea I enjoy drinking.

Obviously tea can get too moldy. I’m not advocating people buy tea that is stored in a bathtub or anything.

i’ve seen one study where they found some fungus toxins in puer tea. But, not in all their samples used in the study. So, the authors just recommend rinsing the tea first as is standard practice.

If the teas were generally dangerous, it would be part of the common sense knowledge about these teas. That is, the risk would be well-known and talked about for decades. However, this doesnt seem to be the case. Basically, the risk is low.

For comparison, things like potatoes are known to be poisonous under certain conditions (some types of storage, large amount of consumption). But, folks dont really get sick eating potatoes either.

Thank you for opening this topic. I actually enjoy traditional storage a great deal and suffer:), since it is so underrepresented here. However, I somehow find it difficult to explain to others why I prefer them to ripe. Some older (I mean 90s here or early 2000) shengs that I tried and were stored traditionally at some point can be compared to ripe in terms of many parameters, like general taste profile, for instance. Most people I talk to usually think that there is no point to bother with traditional raw, since ripe basically does the same thing and is so much more affordable…I, however, believe that there is a difference, but since I do not drink ripe so much, I fail to elaborate my point of view. Do you think that there are distinct characteristics that divides these two types of teas? Or it depends on each specific case? (I understand the processes of fermentation are different and so should be the results) But will good ripe be always different to traditionally stored raw (of an equally good quality) after they are both aired out? and how to spot/explain the difference?

Thanks for the comment. I feel your pain. Nearly all of my traditionally stored cakes have been acquired from my travels. It really is underrepresented..

I agree that ripe and traditionally stored pu’erh are actually fairly different, although I think it can be a bit difficult to describe the differences. Generally speaking, I think raw tea will be more powerful and have stronger activity and aftertaste. Ripe tea has a certain softness to it.

The wet leaf should also help to tell the story.. Consider buying a $20-30 ripe (ideally Dayi) and compare the wet leaf to a raw.

For me, I now drink both but I’d say 4 times out of 5 I’ll choose the raw.

Hi James
I wonder if the under representation is evocative of a bit of “tea hoarding”. Whenever I tried to get my hands on traditional stored puerh its always felt I was purchasing contraband. Having said that equally it crops up in the unexpected locations.
Additionally I think for most Westerners the idea of buying traditionally stored puerh is a bit of a novelty and I also wonder if cultural values come into play in that traditional notions on the Chinese bodily constitution being cold and damp as opposed to European constitution often surprises vendors as Westerners buying it to consume might appear counter intuitive to health.
I also think there maybe cultural notions around purchasing a tea that is a bit “sticky”. Popular Western ideas of tea still evokes the idea of dry material or neatly (almost clinically) packaged material. When you first come up against an old traditionally stored CNNP brick its easy to imagine an almost abject reaction in comparison. But once you’ve gone beyond that you soon realise the difference between cotton and silk.

Some interesting points. As you point out, it’s certainly not a tea for the faint of heart. The demand for stuff to be nicely wrapped and of known origin and storage could also play a role. For me, the allure behind a smelly old CNNP wrapper can be quite fun :).

Traditional storage tea is all too often mismarketed by the old tea fakers. Wetter tea is sold by so many vendors as “old” tea when it really isn’t, with the price jacked up accordingly. The skewed pricing and faking makes this tea difficult to buy online unless you are doing a private buy.